Map reveals how much of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem can no longer visit - and why, as another tribe bans her

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20 percent of her state after another tribe banished her on Tuesday.

It means she is currently unwelcome on seven of nine reservations located within the state.

The latest ban came following comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels. 

'We do not have cartels on the reservations,' Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Chairman Peter Lengkeek said following Tuesday's vote.

The latest developments come on the heels of the backlash Noem faced for writing about killing a puppy that misbehaved in her latest book. 

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is the latest to ban South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem 

Noem is currently not welcome on seven out of nine reservations within the state

It is likely the controversies will effectively end her chances to become Donald Trump's running mate in November's election.

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe banned Noem on Tuesday while the Sissteon-Wahpeton Oyate enacted their ban earlier in the week. 

On Friday the leadership committee of the Yankton Sioux Tribe recommended that Noem be banned, but that tribe's general council must vote on it before Noem could be banned from their land in southeastern South Dakota.

 The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken action to keep her off their reservations. 

Two other tribes have not yet banned her.

Noem reinforced the divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she said publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.

'Murders are being committed by cartel members on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the Ghost Dancers are affiliated with these cartels,' Noem said in her speech earlier this year. 'They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity.'

'The sheer number of illegal migrants coming into the country has made it so that every state is now a border state', she went on.

'We've got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being here, and that's why they attack me every day,' Noem said at a forum.

'But I'm going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, 'Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.'' 

Noem appeared to double-down on her position on Thursday by addressing the controversy on social media 

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, left, and Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire stand during a ceremony in which tribal leaders presented flags of the Standing Rock and Rosebud Sioux tribes this past January at the state Capitol in Pierre

Charles Abourezk has served as a judge for Native American tribes in the and has said that he has not encountered any cartel activity in the cases he's sat on. 

'I honestly don't know of any,' Abourezk said to NPR. 'I have never run across any allegations of cartel involvement, although there is normal drug use and sales you see in the rest of South Dakota.'

Noem has previously said she believes many people who live on the reservations still support her even though she is clearly not getting along with tribal leaders.

Noem addressed the issue in a post on X on Thursday along while posting a link to a YouTube channel about law enforcement´s video about drugs on the reservations.

'Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,' Noem said. 'We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.'

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation, dance during a flag day celebration

A sign marks the entrance to the Crow Creek Hunkpati Oyate Reservation of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in Crow Creek, South Dakota

The entrance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Sioux tribe

The tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. 

She was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.

And there is a long history of rocky relations between Native Americans in the state and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee massacre as part of a campaign to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.

Political observer Cal Jillson, who is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem seems to be 'stoking it actively, which suggests that she sees a political benefit.'

'I'm sure that Governor Noem doesn't mind a focus on tensions with the Native Americans in South Dakota because if we're not talking about that, we're talking about her shooting the dog,' Jillson said.

Noem appears to be getting tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family's chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor. 

A banner for the burial site of Sitting Bull is seen in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation 

Noem also drew criticism for including an anecdote she has since asked her publisher to pull from the book that described 'staring down' North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a private meeting that experts said was implausible.

After those controversies, she canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour.

With all the questions about 'No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,' no one is even asking anymore about Noem's decision to appear in an infomercial-style video lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas who gave her veneers.

Jillson said it all probably hurts her chances with Trump, who has been auditioning a long list of potential vice-president candidates.

'I think that the chaos that Trump revels in is the chaos he creates. Chaos created by somebody else simply detracts attention from himself,' Jillson said.

University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card said that if it isn't the vice-president slot, it's not clear what is in Noem's political future because she is prevented from running for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.

She could go after U.S. Senator Mike Rounds' seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.